Two days had passed before Ed was allowed to have visitors, and once given the green go to visit Mustang stormed into Ed's room followed by Al and Hawkeye.
Ed was sitting up, kind of. His back was against the wall of pillows that was set up for him, he was passed out with his head slumped down against his chest, hair in a ponytail. On his left arm was an IV, that he hadn't ripped out yet apparently. His left shoulder was also bandaged up, along with his forehead. Mustang couldn't see how bad his stomach was, but at the moment he wanted to rip Ed a new one. He wasn't letting this one slide.

"m-..maybe we outta come back later and let brother rest..." Al said gently.

"He's slept plenty. An hour of his time won't kill him." Mustang flinched at his own use of the phrase "kill him". The kid got too close to death's door than Mustang was comfortable with. Shrugging it off, he walked over and gently nudged Ed, who almost fell over but jerked awake and caught himself.

"hnn..?"

"Oh good, you're awake. We've some things to discuss FullMetal." Mustang said, sitting down on a chair next to the hospital bed.

Ed could tell from the Colonel's tone, that this wouldn't be a pleasant discussion. His whole body felt like lead. Plus, he was comfortable at the moment, whatever meds he was on, they were working. He just wanted to sleep, he could feel his head starting to slump again when he heard a loud smack.
Mustang clapped his hands loud, jolting Ed up again. He was met with a confused look, But at least he had the kid's attention now.

'Oh yeah, Mustang's here. He's probably pretty peeved at the situation..' Ed thought to himself. Honestly couldn't this wait til tomorrow? He was exhausted, like he ran a couple marathons underwater.

Mustang sighed, the kid looked like he was on cloud nine.
"FullMetal. Based on your actions last night I have no choice but to administer discipline." Mustang said sternly.

"What are you saying?" Ed said, he knew he spoke but it didn't sound like him, his words were drawn out and sluggish.

"I'm placing your research on hold. You're on leave for the next month starting when you're released from the hospital." Mustang said. He waited a moment to let FullMetal process what he just said. When it sunk in, Ed exploded.

"WHAT?!?! YOU CAN'T DO THAT!!!" He yelled, immediately trying to get out of bed, clutching his stomach in pain.

Mustang stood.

"I can, and am. I am your superior and since you refuse to listen to my orders, I've no other choice!" Mustang yelled, angry at the stubborn fool.

"A MONTH?! YOU ARE AWARE THAT WHAT I'M WORKING TOWARDS IS IMPORT-" Ed was cut off as he sucked in a deep breath, hand clapping over His mouth and he coughed hard, specks of blood dusting his palm.

"You don't even care how close to death you came, you have no value for your own life." Mustang said darkly.

Ed, wiping his mouth narrowed his eyes. He and Mustang glared at each other a moment until he spoke.

"Get well soon Edward." Mustang said harshly, then left the room, angry and annoyed, but relieved all the same. He'd gotten his point across and hopefully FullMetal would get the hint to take care of himself. Hawkeye walked a pace behind Mustang, solemnly silent.

Ed winced a bit as he ripped the IV out of his wrist. He was absolutely livid. Who does that stupid egoistic jerk think he is?! He wasn't some kid who needed to be grounded, no! He was working to save his brother and he wasn't going to put that on hold for even a breath.

"Brother... Please, you should just rest..." Alphonse said softly, but his words fell onto deaf ears as Ed got up, ignoring the lurching pain in his abdomen.

"I'm getting Marcos notes and we're heading to Dublith. We need teacher's help." Ed said in a stone cold tone.

"But brother! You're on leave! You aren't even supposed to be out of bed!" Al said desperately, his brother almost died and now he wanted to charge back into trouble head first.

But Ed had already made his way to the door. The room was tilting a bit, and he felt like his stomach was made up of pop rocks but he wasn't going to sit around and sulk. He took it easy for a few days, he'd just have to heal during the train ride and in the library. Ed made his way down the hospital hallway, His stubbornness and anger fueling his walk as he made a turn.

"Brother!!" Al yelled, as he grabbed Ed's arms, feeling immediately guilty as Ed flinched in pain. "Brother... We.. We're staying here. You're going to rest, and heal.. And when you're released from the hospital, we're staying at base like Mustang ordered." Al said, his voice becoming firm and serious.

Ed looked up at Al, dumbfounded.
"Al, no we're not!" Ed snapped at him, but Al simply wasn't having it, he kept a firm grip on Ed's arm and began to lead him back to his room.

Everyone was testing his patience today Ed decided, as he let out a long waterfall of curses. He was trying to free his arm, having no other choice than to stumble along wherever Al tugged him. He was getting mad, his whole face red as he tried to yank his arm free, which only resulted in tugging his stitches loose.
Al practically launched Ed back into the hospital room, and Ed would have started- continued his angry shouts if he hadn't almost had a heart attack at who was in his room.

The füher.

King Bradley.

Ed stood there, utterly stupefied. Surely this was just the meds causing him to hallucinate that the president of the country was standing there in his hospital room with a melon in his hands.

"Ah! I was wondering where you were my dear FullMetal Alchemist." Bradley said. Ed was definitely not hallucinating judging my Al's stunned response.

"King Bradley?! What- what brings you here sir?" Al stammered out.

"Well, I got word that FullMetal was severely injured from the laboratory five incident, oh do you like melons?" Bradley said, dropping the melon in the dazed looking alchemist's hands.

"Th...thanks...?" Ed said, utterly lost. But suddenly, the air took a more serious turn.

"I heard you disobeyed Mustang's orders and proceeded to infiltrate laboratory five. I believe also, you were about to discharge yourself from the hospital despite having severe injuries." Bradley stated, it wasn't questions, no the president knew what Ed was doing. "I am enforcing Mustang's punishment." Bradley continued, the edge of threat against his words. "You are placed on leave. Should you decide to do differently, I'll revoke your research funds until I see fit."
Ed immediately was about to fire back, when Al quickly spoke.
"Yes sir, we understand."

"Good!" The president, was once again all smiles. Ed however was a ticking time bomb literally about to explode when the doctor entered.

"Mr. Elric!!! Your injuries!!" The doctor exclaimed, taking one look at Ed's bloodied shirt from ripped stitches.

"I uhh.." Ed began, before Al plucked the melon from Ed's hands and the doctor quickly had nurses in to fix the stitches and put the IV back in.

"Alphonse." Bradley said, stepping outside Ed's room and into the hallway.

Al, curious walked out with him.
"Yes sir?" He said a bit tentatively.

"Please do try and keep yourselves out of trouble. Some things are best left unknown." He said, a strange look in his eye.

"...I'm afraid I'm not sure I can promise I'll be able to keep out of troubles." Al responsed.

"Well, you may try. It'd be a shame to lose talented alchemists such as you and your brother." Bradley said, before looking into Ed's room as the nurses finished and were now cleaning up a bit, Ed looked utterly tired and annoyed, he was in bed with his IV back to numbing his injuries.

Bradley stepped back into the room. Al, who was suddenly very unnerved by the king's presence followed him inside.

"I trust you'll be out of trouble for awhile hm?" Bradley smiled. His sword propped out in front him like a cane.

Ed, tried his absolute best to look absolutely enraged, because he was. He wasn't about to just giddily agree, and be ecstatic about being on house arrest. Unfortunately, he was having trouble staying awake at the moment. his eyes were beginning to slide shut, his body feeling heavy from exhaustion, pain, and the relief the medicine brought. Drooping and dozing off looked too much like agreeing for Ed's comfort. He jerked his head up a bit, but by the time he'd remembered how to open his eyes and sit up a bit, Bradley was walking out of the room, Al escorting him.

Bradley stopped at the doorway, and spoke to Al.
"I hope you'll carry my words with weight and heed them Alphonse." The king said in a low tone.

"Y..yes sir." Al said, as the King then made his way down the hallway disappearing around the corner.

Al let out a Shakey sigh, turning his metal head to look over his shoulder to see Ed succumb to sleep.

"Look at the mess you got us into brother.." Al whispered gently to himself.